Designer Peter Molyneux surprised fans at E3 last year with his vision of Fable using Kinect. It wasn’t an open-world experience like the previous versions; instead, it appeared to be on rails. He showed a man traveling the world via… Continue Reading →

Designer Peter Molyneux surprised fans at E3 last year with his vision of Fable using Kinect. It wasn’t an open-world experience like the previous versions; instead, it appeared to be on rails. He showed a man traveling the world via horse and garage. A few things have changed since then and 10 months later, he was showing of a new version of Fable: The Journeyat the Xbox Spring Showcase in San Francisco last week.

Molyneux, who recently announced he was living the studio, was on hand to offer more details on this latest chapter in Albion. From the get-go, he emphasized that this isn’t the Fable game fans will be used to. You can’t get married, most likely because the main character, Gabriel, never meets anyone suitable, Molyneux said. You don’t have a dog per se but there’s another creature and most of the core elements are there.

Get ready to grab on those imaginary reins. From what I saw, steering isn’t difficult and the game guides you via orbs.

HOW KINECT CHANGES THE GAME: There’s some exploration, a leveling system and dungeons to crawl through but the Kinect adds a layer of immersion. His team at Lionhead Studios took the lessons learned in the Milo project and applied it to a game based on a road trip. As Gabriel, players ride a carriage across Albion by gesturing as if they had reins. They steer by pulling in one direction or another. Pushing down with to hands and making a sound like “hiyah” will make the beast go faster.

It’s fine and dandy until roaming monsters such as Hobbes attack. In the demo, they fire arrows and hit Gabriel’s horse. This leads to a fight and after defeating them with some magic, which I’ll get to later on, players will have to heal his horse.

Dangers lurk everywhere on the road.

First off, they’ll pull the arrows out of its body via gestures and they can use their magic to heal it by waving their hand over the injury. Meanwhile, the beast will act differently based on how delicately they preform the procedure.

If they carelessly yank the arrow out, the horse won’t like it. If they make soothing sounds and cautiously help the animal, then it’ll like you more. To improve the procedure, players can also make soothing sounds to calm it. The concept sounds a lot like the relationship that players had with their dog in the previous two entries.

As for other elements, there are moments when players won’t be steering the horse and carriage across the country. They’ll have to explore areas, fight enemies and solve simple puzzles. That’s mostly done via a gesture-based magic system.

TWO-HAND FIGHTING: Players attack with the right hand firing balls of energy. They defend with the left hand which shoots out whiplike tendrils that can toss enemies aside or destroy objects they’re perched upon. The voice modifies the strength of the magic. For example, if an enemy is pissing players off, they can shout and the magic in their right hand will be amplified, growing stronger, impacting more enemies. When it comes to leveling, players can put points into both types of magic and see it grow more powerful.

When it comes to story details, Fable: The Journey takes place three years after the events of Fable 3. I’m not certain on much else but players will see familiar sights such as the Spire from Fable 2 and Bowerstone. Expect the Kinect title to be released this year.